Standard accounts of American politics invoke an oscillation between idealist and realist inclinations, between an appeal to fundamental principles and the insistence on a down-to-earth realpolitik. Yet this dialectic of idealism and realism, values and power, is not a Washington monopoly. In Telos 171, we turn both to the Middle East and to China to explore some permutations of politics and the pursuit of principles that inform them.

In ways not seen since the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, America is becoming a nation of increasingly sharply divided classes. Joel Kotkin’s The New Class Conflict shows how the rise of a high-tech oligarchy, along with academia, the media, and the government bureaucracy, is creating a new class order, largely at the expense of the middle class.

Matthias Küntzel’s Germany and Iran examines the history of the special relationship between Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran, from its origins at the start of the last century to the ongoing controversy over Iran’s nuclear program. Drawing on new archival findings from Washington, DC, and Berlin, Küntzel traces the underpinnings of that relationship, which has survived every war, catastrophe, and revolution.

Ernst Jünger’s The Forest Passage explores the possibility of resistance: how the independent thinker can withstand and oppose the power of the omnipresent state. No matter how extensive the technologies of surveillance become, the forest can shelter the rebel, and the rebel can strike back against tyranny. Jünger’s manifesto is a defense of freedom against the pressure to conform to political manipulation and artificial consensus.

This article places Benjamin’s late work in dialogue with recent attempts in media theory and structuralism to think the subject and historical contingency together. It argues their apparent incompatibility is reflected in Benjamin’s writing in the form of a recurrent contradiction between historical materialism and transhistorical theology. Through a reconstruction of the theorist’s historicization of an earlier theological theory of . . . (continue reading)

In his article "The Last of the Last: Theology, Authority, and Democracy," from Telos 123 (Spring 2002), John Milbank argues that theology's proper role is within the Church extended through time and space, rather than as "'a public discourse' answerable to the critical norms and liberal values." Yet his claim does not come without qualification. Many aspects of theological inquiry<><> . . . (continue reading)

Ben Agger passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, July 14, 2015, after experiencing a brief illness. Part of the larger Telos community, as an advocate, reader, and supporter since the 1960s and 1970s in Toronto, Ben was a native of Oregon who became a undergraduate and graduate student at York University before receiving his PhD in Political Economy at the University<><> . . . (continue reading)

From the Publisher's Desk

Telos has always celebrated rejuvenation and renewal, and in recent years we’ve embraced that change in a variety of ways. We’ve taken Telos online and digitized our full forty-four year archive, allowing institutional subscribers from around the world to access the journal over the Internet. We’ve created a regular conference series in New York City and another more recently in Europe, which have brought together an increasing number of scholars to discuss today’s critical issues in politics and philosophy . . . (continue reading)

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